Gingrich Says Romney Is the Most Likely Republican Nomine

Republican presidential candidates, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, left, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich participate in a debate in Mesa, Arizona on Feb. 22, 2012. After the latest round of primary voting, Romney has 658 delegates, according to an Associated Press tally. That is more than half the 1,144 needed to capture the nomination. Gingrich has 135 delegates. Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

April 8 (Bloomberg) -- Republican presidential candidate
Newt Gingrich said his rival Mitt Romney is “far and away” the
most likely candidate to win the Republican nomination.

Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” the former speaker of the
House said today he’ll endorse Romney if he gets a majority of
the delegates to the Republican nominating convention.

“I have no regrets, but it’s clear that Governor Romney
had done a very good job of building a very substantial
machine,” Gingrich said on Fox. He added that his campaign is
in debt and that he spent money in a “real brawl” in Florida,
where he lost the Jan. 31 primary to Romney.

“We’re operating on a shoestring,” said Gingrich, 68.

After the latest round of primary voting, Romney has 658
delegates, according to an Associated Press tally. That is more
than half the 1,144 needed to capture the nomination. Former
Senator Rick Santorum has 281 delegates, Gingrich trails with
135 delegates and U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas has 51.

If Romney is the nominee, Gingrich said, “I will work as
hard for him as I would for myself” during the fall campaign.
Republicans are all committed to defeating Democratic President
Barack Obama, a “genuine radical,” he said.

Budget Deficit

Obama hasn’t identified a clear plan for reducing the
federal budget deficit and debt, Senator Ron Johnson, a
Wisconsin Republican, said on Fox.

Johnson, who has endorsed Romney, said voters in November
would encounter an “extremely stark choice.”

“We need presidential leadership and we have none,” he
said.

What’s lacking, said Democratic Senator Kent Conrad, is
bipartisan cooperation. Conrad, of North Dakota, is chairman of
the Senate Budget Committee and has endorsed plans to reduce the
deficit that rely on spending cuts and tax increases.

“If we don’t get together, we can’t accomplish anything,”
he said.

Conrad said he saw the possibility of a broad budget
agreement emerging after the election. He said that could happen
either before or after Jan. 1, when income tax cuts expire and
automatic spending cuts are scheduled to take effect.

Buffett Rule

Congress returns to work on the week of April 16. The
Senate is scheduled to consider the “Buffett Rule,” a tax bill
backed by Democrats that would require people making over $2
million to pay at least a 30 percent effective tax rate.

The rule is named for billionaire investor Warren Buffett,
who has called for higher taxes on investment income.

Obama is planning a speech on the Buffett Rule April 10 in
Boca Raton, Florida.

The election may turn on independent voters’ views of
economic policy, Ohio Governor John Kasich said on NBC’s “Meet
the Press.”

“Whoever can tell them that they’re going to improve this
economy, create jobs for families, will be the winner,” said
Kasich, a Republican.

The Labor Department said April 6 that employers added
120,000 jobs in March, after an increase of 227,000 in February.
It was the fewest jobs added in five months. Unemployment fell
to 8.2 percent from 8.3 percent as discouraged workers left the
labor force.

Jobs Disappointment

“Like the president, we want this to move more quickly,”
Durbin said on NBC. “I think we’re moving in the right
direction.”

Kasich blamed the political divide between the parties in
Washington for the failure to improve conditions more quickly.

“Government clearly has a role in the area of health care,
in Medicare and in Medicaid and in Social Security,” he said.
“But we need to modernize the program, and we need to do it
together.”

Durbin criticized the budget passed by House Republicans,
saying that the proposed changes to Medicare would force future
retirees to find health care on the open market.

As Obama has done, Durbin mocked Romney, the former
Massachusetts governor, for describing the House budget plan as
“marvelous.”

Romney’s approach would constitute “a return to the same
economic policy we had under President Bush that brought on the
worst recession since the Great Depression,” Durbin said,
referring to Republican President George W. Bush. “We don’t
want to go back to those economic policies.”